The
Struggle Continues... Story Of Young Somali Mother... And
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Writers Articles And Opinions

18 December 2009

By El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

I pray this finds our readers well. A quick note to
once again congratulate the brothers and sisters who
responded to the call for the very important partial
victory we witnessed in Atlanta on Monday. It may not
seem like much from a distance but, all things
considered, it truly is. (More on this later,
insha'Allah.)

I just got word that the purported "ringleader" of the
"Raleigh 7" alleged terrorism conspiracy, Daniel Boyd
(aka, Saifullah), has a hearing in Raleigh, NC,
tomorrow (Thursday, DEC 17) at 10 am, in the Terry
Sanford Courthouse. (I don't have an address.) I am
going to try to be present, insha'Allah. We encourage
others in the area to do the same.

Finally, two important pieces of commentary
immediately follow. The first involves a Somali Muslim
family in crisis in New York, in critical need of
their Muslim brethren's support. I personally know the
sister who sent this out, she is a credible source who
I trust! Please do what you can.

The last commentary is one that I wrote on Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui, at the request of the publisher of The
Muslim Observer. Please read and reflect, and then let
your conscience be your guide.

In the struggle for peace thru
justice

On this December 1, 2009, I sent you an email alerting
you to a BBC Somali service interview of November 9th,
2009. In that report, young Somali mother by the name
of Malayka Sabtow was interviewed. The family's story
was too painful yet story that needed a human
compassion.

Malayka Sabtow and her husband Maadey Qamis Abdi
arrived in the United States late 2005. Before that,
they spent most of their life in refugee camp in Kenya
fleeing from the Somali conflict. And most of their 6
children (3 boys and 3 girls) were born in that
refugee camp. The ages of the children range from 13
years to 6 months.

According to the mother the 6 months old baby was 2
months in July 31st when the Child Protective Services
of Buffalo, NY removed the children from their
parents' custody.

Also in that email, I reported the father, Maadey
Qamis Abdi was arrested and later released on $2800
bond. Since then, the father went back to court and
was cleared of all charges. But the judge explain to
him the cultural difference of America and the country
he left behind on the family issues.

The court date set for family hearing is tomorrow
December 17, 2009. And your support is urgently
needed. You can write a letter to the judge (To Whom
it may Concern/Re-Abdi family) and fax it to the
lawyer TODAY.

You can ask for the children to be placed with the
mother since she was never charged with anything until
the case is reviewed. Or to be placed within the
Somali/Muslim families that are willing to take the
children.

Please try to fax a letter of support to the lawyer.
His info is below.

Or call and ask the New York City children services (advocay
organization) and ask them to get involve in this
case. They can be reached at # is 212-676-9421.

You can also, help fundraise for the family's legal
defense.

If you can help or know anyone who can, please contact
the lawyer, Mr. Oscar Smukler @ 716-838-5515. Or
call/email me at (703) 717-8060/sadiaaden@gmail.com.

Please help in any way you can.

Who is Aafia Siddiqui?

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

As someone who has been a human rights advocate for
most of his adult life, I have seen many cases come
and go; few have been as heart rending and
consequential as the mysterious case of Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui.

More than six years into this saga there still remain
many unknowns. What brought the US government’s
attention to this soft-spoken, unassuming woman? Why
was she abducted and secretly held for five years? Why
did Pakistan hand over one of its citizens to the US?
And given the nature of the allegations that were
being made by US authorities around the time of
Aafia’s disappearance, why have none of those
terrorism-related innuendos found their way into the
criminal indictment that was finally brought against
Aafia in a US federal court?

Dr. Siddiqui and her three children (two of whom are
American born) disappeared in March 2003 following
their abduction from a taxicab in Karachi Pakistan. No
one would know of their whereabouts for the next five
years. As time passed, however, and tales began to
spread about a mysterious woman being held at Bagram
(Afghanistan), identified only as Prisoner 650,
pressure began to build toward indentifying who that
mysterious woman was.

Investigative journalist and human rights activist
Yvonne Ridley – who produced an excellent documentary
on the subject (“In Search of Prisoner 650”) – dubbed
her “The Grey Lady of Bagram.” Shortly after Ridley
traveled to Pakistan to build mass support for an
investigation into who the grey lady really was, a
disheveled and degraded Aafia Siddiqui reappeared on
the streets of Ghazni, Afghanistan in July 2008, only
to be drawn back into a deadly web of intrigue.

One of the most riveting parts of “In Search of
Prisoner 650,” for this writer, was Ridley’s interview
of Ghazni Counter-Terrorism Police Chief Abdul Qadeer.
The chief recounted that on the day of Aafia’s
re-arrest 12 to 13 Americans were given permission to
interview her. After one went behind the curtain where
she was being held, all of a sudden there was gunfire.
Aafia was shot and seriously wounded.

The official story was that Aafia had tried to pick up
a rifle to fire upon the investigators, but ended up
being shot in the stomach herself. According to the
report, she received emergency treatment only because
Afghan authorities insisted on it. In the documentary,
Abdul Qadeer expressed suspicion about why she was
removed from their (Afghan) custody. When the Governor
of Ghazni Province, Dr. Usman Usmani, was confronted
with this question by Yvonne Ridley, he gave a rather
confused and clearly uncomfortable response.

Who is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui?

Aafia Siddiqui is a 37 year old Pakistani national who
did her graduate and post-graduate work in the United
States, graduating from MIT and Brandeis University,
where she received her PhD. Those who knew her in
Boston (who this writer has spoken to) have had
nothing but glowing things to say about her. Quiet,
soft-spoken, focused; a devoted mother, excellent
student, and committed muslimah who was known for her
charitable work in the Boston community, is how she is
invariably described.

She was married to a Pakistani doctor, but they were
divorced (under acrimonious circumstances) by the time
of her abduction. The two youngest children from this
marriage are still missing to this day. The oldest, a
now 12 year old son, was returned to his family just
this past summer and now resides with Aafia’s sister,
Fauzia.

What brought this young mother to the attention of
U.S. authorities remains a mystery. Former U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a press conference
years ago, described her as an “al-Qaeda facilitator.”
And yet, now in custody awaiting trial, Aafia Siddiqui
does not face even one terrorism related charge!

What we can do

This case involving Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is one of the
most important precedent-setting cases confronting the
Muslim-American community post 9/11. (Laws are
established on the basis of precedent.)

In 2002, Deputy Attorney General Viet Dinh – a
prominent member of the Justice Department’s “cartel
of conservative lawyers” – was the first high level
official in the Bush-Cheney administration to openly
admit the government’s use of “profiling” (both racial
and religious) in the so-called “war on terrorism.”
When questioned on the criteria employed, his response
was, “The criteria Al-Qaeda itself uses; eighteen to
35 year old males who entered the country after the
start of 2000 using passports from countries where
Al-Qaeda has a strong presence.”

In his address to the American Bar Association
conference in Naples, Florida earlier that year (Jan.
2002) he stated quite emphatically: “We are reticent
to provide a road map to Al-Qaeda as to the progress
and direction of our investigative activity. We don’t
want to taint people as being of interest to the
investigation simply because of our attention. We will
let them go if there is not enough of a predicate to
hold them. But we will follow them closely, and if
they so much as spit on the sidewalk we’ll arrest
them. The message is that if you are a suspected
terrorist, you better be squeaky clean. If we can we
will keep you in jail.”

Clearly this has been the policy of the U.S.
government for Muslim males post 9/11. With the case
of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, that policy was expanded to
include Muslim females as well. If they can get away
with what they’re doing to Aafia today, it will be
other sisters tomorrow.

A demonstration is being planned for the courthouse on
the day of opening arguments in (or around) January
2010. The two most important things we can do for
Aafia at this point are to keep her in our prayers,
and show up on the date of this mobilization. As our
beloved Prophet (pbuh) said: “Tie your camel, and have
trust in ALLAH.”

Mauri’ Saalakhan serves as Director of Operations for
The Peace And Justice Foundation. For more information
on the upcoming mobilization call (301) 762-9162 or
E-mail peacethrujustice@aol.com .